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Dover Corporation is a Fortune 500 diversified manufacturer of industrial products. Founded in 1955, and currently employs more than 26,000 people worldwide. Dover’s business is divided into four segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover is a constituent of the S&P 500 index and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under “DOV.”

History In the 1930s and 1940s, George Ohrstrom Senior, a New York stockbroker, bought four manufacturing companies: C. Lee Cook Company (seals and piston rings), Rotary Lift (automotive lifts), C. Norris (oil-well pump-sucker rods) and Peerless (space heaters). Dover Corporation was incorporated in 1947, and in 1955, Ohrstrom brought in the former owner and President of C. Lee Cook Company, Fred D. Durham, to manage his four companies. Later that same year, the Dover Corporate offices opened in Washington, D.C., and Dover Corporation went public on the New York Stock Exchange. As such, the year 1955 marks the company’s official founding.

Fred Durham influenced Dover’s corporate culture, emphasizing autonomy, decentralization and few corporate staff members. As a result, divisions were run in an independent fashion, each with its own President. Today, Dover is still known for its decentralized management structure in its governance of operating companies and for its acquisitive approach.

Between 1955 and 1979, Dover acquired 14 companies. A great deal of this acquisition activity served to build the Dover Elevator business. This elevator growth began in 1955, as Dover Elevator split from Rotary Lift and became an independent operating company within Dover. Dover’s purchase of Shepard Warner Elevator Company in 1958 marked the beginning of an effort to grow the elevator business. In 1963, Dover acquired Acme Elevator, and then Elevator Service, Hunter-Hayes Elevator Company and Reddy Elevator Company in 1964. With these purchases, Dover soon became the number three elevator company in the U.S. and remained so for many years. Dover continued to build its elevator division in the 1960s and 1970s, with purchases of Moody & Rowe, Burch, Turnbill, Burlington, Hammond & Champness, Louisiana Elevator and W.W. Moore. Ultimately, Dover sold its elevator business in 1998 to Thyssen A.G. for $1.1 billion. Dover Elevator had a pretax operating profit of $93 million in 1997 and the sale was mutually beneficial: it allowed Dover to focus on building its other businesses and moved ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas to the number three spot worldwide in the elevator and escalator industry.

Dover’s acquisitive history reaches beyond the elevator industry. With a focus on diversification in the 1960s came notable purchases of companies that continue to be a significant part of Dover Corporation today, such as the acquisition of Ohio Pattern Works & Foundry Company in 1961. The company was shorthanded to OPW, and in 1949 one of their engineers named Leonard H. Duerr invented the automatic shutoff fuel-dispensing nozzle valve. Today, the basic technology of Duerr’s invention continues to exist in automatic shutoff nozzles, and OPW is still a part of Dover, specializing in the design and manufacture of commercial and retail-fueling solutions.

In 1962, Dover made two notable acquisitions: Detroit Stamping Company, now DE-STA-CO, specializing in the design and manufacture of clamping, gripping, transferring and robotic tooling solutions; and Alberta Oil Tool, now part of Dover Artificial Lift. Today, Alberta Oil Tool produces specialty drive rods, Norris tubular fittings, Norriseal control values and more.

1964 marked a significant year, as OPW’s former leader Thomas Sutton became President of Dover and corporate headquarters were relocated to New York City. The 1970s were characterized by Dover’s intent to expand beyond its principle industries of building materials, equipment and industrial components. A result of this effort included the acquisition of Dieterich Standard, which manufactured liquid-measurement instruments and whose President, Gary Roubos, went on to become Dover’s Chief Operating Officer and President in 1977. Later, Roubos become Dover’s Chief Executive Officer in 1981.

Another significant acquisition included Sargent Industries, a manufacturer of control devices for aerospace and industrial end-markets, which was purchased in 1984 for $68 million. Today, Sargent Aerospace & Defense is a premier global supplier of precision-engineered components and aftermarket services, and performs critical functions on a variety of commercial and military aircraft, submarines and land-based vehicles.

In the 1980s, Dover also began to focus more on electronics. This period was marked by the acquisitions of K&L Microwave in 1983, Dielectric Laboratories in 1985 and NURAD in 1986. Dover later chose to spin off DOVatron in 1993 to shareholders, as the company specialized in circuit-board assembly and had become a source of competition for Dover customers.

That same year, Dover acquired Phoenix Refrigeration Systems, which then acquired Hill Refrigeration in 1994 to form Hillphoenix. Hillphoenix now manufactures commercial refrigeration systems and mechanical centers; electrical distribution products; walk-in coolers and freezers; and specialty display cases and fixtures. The company is committed to environmental sustainability and reducing energy use and is a partner of the EPA’s GreenChill initiative, which focuses on reducing refrigerant emissions and climate-change impact. In fact, Hillphoenix has more equipment installed at GreenChill Certified retail stores than any other refrigeration manufacturer.

Also in 1994, Dover’s Chief Operating Officer and President, Thomas Reece, became Chief Executive Officer of the company. The following year, Dover purchased an 88% interest in Imaje Printing Products, a French company, for $200 million; this acquisition marks the largest in Dover’s corporate history. Dover later acquired Markem Corporation, specializing in identification solutions, in 2006. One year later, the companies merged and were renamed Markem-Imaje, and have since focused on product coding, labeling and traceability solutions.

While Dover acquired more than 70 companies between 1998 and 2002, the early 2000s showed signs of a decline in the company’s acquisition rate. Dover sold eight companies in 2001 for $400 million total. The early 2000s also marked a leadership change: Ronald Hoffman, Dover’s Vice President and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Dover Resources, become President and Chief Operating Officer of Dover Corporation in 2003. In 2005, he was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Dover focused on growing key target areas from 2007 to 2009, including electronic communication, energy and fluids, product identification and refrigeration. Dover continued to grow its refrigeration business in the coming years, for example, in 2012 with the purchase of Anthony International for $602.5 million. Anthony designs and manufactures specialty glass, commercial-glass refrigeration and freezer doors, lighting systems and display equipment.

In 2008, Robert Livingston was appointed as Dover’s new Chief Executive Officer and President. Livingston’s Dover career began 29 years prior with the acquisition of K&L Microwave, where he was a Vice President. After joining Dover, Livingston also served as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Dover Corporation; President and Chief Executive Officer of Dover Engineered Systems, Inc.; and President and Chief Executive Officer of Dover Electronics. Under Livingston’s leadership, Dover moved its corporate headquarters from New York City to Chicago in 2010. Factors at play in the decision included Chicago’s central location, wide variety of housing options for employees, quality of life and nearby air service to national and global destinations. The choice to move to Downers Grove, Illinois, was also partially impacted by an effort to consolidate operations and reduce administration costs, as the move brought all four segment headquarters under one roof.

From 2008 to 2012, Dover acquired almost 25 companies. Livingston’s corporate development strategy sought to strengthen promising businesses and divest those that were either growing slowly or had significant exposure to highly volatile industries. As a result, Dover was able to apply greater focus to growing four or five targeted end-markets. Livingston also worked to reduced expenses by consolidating back office operations, metal purchases and freight transportation.

In 2011, Dover further built its acoustic components business with the purchase of Sound Solutions, a manufacturer of dynamic speakers and receivers for mobile phones and other consumer electronics, for $855 million. Dover had acquired Knowles, a designer and manufacturer of hearing-aid technology and other acoustical componentry, six years earlier for $750 million. Together, Sound Solutions and Knowles gave Dover the necessary scale to develop integrated solutions for the rapidly evolving mobile-electronics industry. In 2014, Dover spun off Knowles, which had a $2.6 billion market cap post-spin. Today, Knowles continues to be a global supplier of communication-technology components, such as MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) microphones, speakers, receivers, transduces, capacitors and oscillators. Dover CEO and President Robert Livingston described the spinoff as allowing both Knowles and Dover to more aggressively pursue their individual growth strategies.

Segments and Operating Companies Dover’s organization and segment structure has changed over its history. For example, in 1985 Dover restructured into five major subsidiaries to reflect their key markets of interest. For reporting purposes, these five major subsidies were represented in four sections: building industries (Dover Elevator International); electronic products (Dover Technologies); petroleum (Dover Resources); and industrial and aerospace products (Dover Industries, Dover Sargent). In 1989, Dover re-segmented into six sectors based on market activity changes: Dover Elevator International, Dover Technology, Dover Resources, Dover Industries, Dover Diversified and Corporate Companies. After selling Dover Elevator, these segments became Diversified, Electronics, Industries, Resources, Systems and Technologies. In 2007, Dover reported four segments: Industrial Products, Engineered Systems, Fluid Management and Electronic Technologies. By 2012, Dover had re-segmented again into Dover Communication Technologies, Dover Energy, Dover Engineered Systems and Dover Printing & Identification.

Since 2014, Dover Corporation has operated with four segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. The operating companies that reside within each segment are run like independent companies. Today, the Energy segment works closely with customers in the drilling and production markets to develop high-performance solutions that advance the efficiency and safety of extracting oil and gas. It is comprised of seven operating companies: Cook Compression, Dover Artificial Lift, Dover Energy Automation (DEA), Accelerated Process Systems, TWG, US Synthetic and Waukesha Bearings. Cook Compression develops engineered compressor solutions, while Dover Artificial Lift develops solutions for oil-and-gas production, such as rod lifts, progressing cavity pumps, gas lifts and plunger-lift systems. DEA includes Quartzdyne, which designs, develops and manufactures resonating quartz pressure transducers for the downhole oil-and-gas industry. TWG is made up of six companies, all of which specialize in industry-specific winches and supporting electronic systems. US Synthetic produces long-lasting diamond inserts for downhole drilling-tool applications. Finally, Waukesha Bearings develops custom-engineered fluid-film bearings and magnet-bearing systems for high-performance turbomachinery.

The Engineered Systems segment develops products and systems for a variety of industries, from printing to waste handling. JK Group, Markem Imaje, MS Printing Solutions and OK International all serve the printing and identification markets. Environmental Solutions Group develops solutions for the transportation and transformation of solid waste. De-Sta-Co manufactures work-holding and flexible-automation solutions, such as clamps and grippers. Microwave Products Group serves defense, aerospace and telecommunications markets. Finally, Performance Motorsports Inc., Texas Hydraulics, Vehicle Service Group and Warn all develop solutions for the automobile and vehicle-service industry.

The Fluids segment designs and manufactures products and systems that safely handle critical fluids for the following end markets: oil-and-gas, retail-fueling, vehicle-wash, chemical, hygienic (food and pharmaceutical) and industrial. This segment is comprised of Colder Products Company, Finder, Hydro Systems Company, Maag, OPW and Pump Solutions Group.

Dover’s fourth segment, Refrigeration & Food Equipment, develops equipment and systems for the commercial-refrigeration, heating and cooling, and food and beverage packaging and food service industries. Anthony and Hillphoenix design solutions for grocery stores: Anthony manufactures glass refrigerator and freezer doors, lighting systems and display equipment, and Hillphoenix manufactures display cases, walk-in coolers/freezers, and refrigeration and power systems. The packaging industry is served by Belvac Production Machinery, Inc., which offers solutions for the beverage can-making industry, and by Tipper Tie, which offers solutions for processing, packaging and automation. SWEP specializes in brazed-plate heat exchangers, with applications in air conditioning, refrigeration, heating, and industry and district energy. Unified Brands produces commercial kitchen equipment.

External Links
 * Dover Corporation

Category:Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Category:Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Category:Companies established in 1955 Category:Downers Grove, Illinois Category:Conglomerate companies of the United States

References

Jkrzysik (talk) 20:16, 29 January 2016 (UTC)